If there's one thing Hawaiians love, it's SPAM. Of course, they're also partial to the delicious nut, the macadamia, so why shouldn't the two be combined into one wonderful treat?
Perhaps that is the brilliant reasoning behind the new SPAM-flavored macadamia nuts by Hamakua. Or maybe SPAM just wanted a vegetarian-friendly option for fans of their products who have given up meat as these snacks are flavored only with a special Hormel seasoning mix, meaning they are totally vegetarian.
The company is hoping to make these available for purchase in California soon, but for now you can only order them online or get them on the islands.
This odd chart by Stephen Wildish (previously at Neatorama) tells us all the ways you can cut toast. It seems amusingly OCD to assign names to each pattern, and do people really cut toast this many ways? Restaurants cut toast diagonally so the pieces fit aesthetically on a breakfast plate. I used to cut French toast into bite-size pieces with a pizza cutter when my kids were small. Mainly, I just tear mine in half at the breakfast table, or I eat toast whole at my desk (preferably in a bacon sandwich). Now I wonder if I am supposed to cut my kids' sandwiches in half before packing them in their lunch -one child prefers toasted bread. Do you cut your toast? Which of these patterns do you use? -via Foodbeast
SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star from SpongeBob Squarepants
Paris
It must be fun to live in Lee Samantha's house! She makes delightful meals for her children. She started doing so when her eldest daughter became too distracted while eating. Now both of her children eat while making up stories about the characters on their plates.
Oh, bread? Let me check with the chef and see if we have any in the kitchen. In the meantime, try out the Mac Daddy. Rockit Burger Bar, a fine dining establishment in Chicago, offers a bun made out of deep fried shingles of macaroni and cheese.
It’s crunchy and oozes macaroni and cheese as you eat it. The Mac Daddy is physically demanding to eat, as it tends to come apart during consumption. So eat it only when you’re in an athletic mood. The restaurant serves it with a salad to counteract the fat content, so think of the Mac Daddy as a balanced meal.
I don't know about you guys, but I just can't get enough macaroni and cheese. In fact, I think it's about time to start eating it for breakfast, but since a bowl of pasta for breakfast still just doesn't feel quite right, I'm happy to be able to get my cheese fix in a different form -that of pankcakes.
If you're brave enough to try something different in the morning, Misc. Kitchen has a great recipe for macaroni and cheese pancakes and they look surprisingly tasty. In fact, pancakes already include flour, milk and eggs, and adding something savory like bacon or cheese is pretty common, so why not throw in a little pasta as well?
Hiro Terada is a master sushi chef. He’s a true artist and a master of his craft. Watch him make hundreds of rapid, perfect cuts into a cucumber. After soaking in saltwater for half an hour, the cucumber becomes incredibly flexible. Chef Terada can make it wiggle like a snake.
If you read our food posts regularly, you probably know that we simply love snack foods and sweets, so of course we exploded with happiness when we saw Food Beast's newest recipe that combines SpaghettiOs, Velveeta and Goldfish Crackers into an amazing, cheesy and tomato-ey cupcake creation. Hopefully you will dig these sweet, salty savory snacks just as much as we do and maybe we can even have John do a taste test soon.
While these look fantastic, I do think they missed out on one great opportunity by not garnishing these bad boys with a Flamin' Hot Cheeto for a spicy, crunchy kick.
In the latest episode of Nick’s quest to immerse the entire world in his deep fryer, he separated Oreo cookies and creme. Then he mixed the creme into cookies and cream flavored ice cream and rolled the ice cream into balls. After crushing the Oreo cookies, he rolled the balls in them, then placed them in the deep fryer. Pictured above are the delicious results.
If you think the government shutdown does not affect you personally, think about the food inspectors at the Food and Drug Administration who are furloughed for the second week now. The FDA doesn't inspect all foods, but they are responsible for making sure that imported seafood, produce, and packaged foods are safe to consume. The USDA is still inspecting American meat and dairy foods, but only with a skeleton crew. Or maybe that's not the best term to use.
If something were to happen in the food chain, the CDC would not be able to trace it, as they are also subject to the shutdown. What to do? First, don't panic. Under normal circumstances, only about 1% of imported food shipments undergo FDA inspections. However, with no inspections at all, there is some risk. You may want to take a look at a list of some foods that have proven troublesome to inspectors in the past.
Oink! My wife and I found this cute pig-shaped mooncake at our local Asian supermarket a few weeks ago. The cake was for the Mid-Autumn Festival (also known for the Mooncake Festival, because of the tradition of eating mooncakes to celebrate it).
The pig moon cake is filled with mung bean paste and its eyes are made from black beans. As you can see, this one is a mass-produced version. Handmade, artisanal pig mooncake (yes, there is such a thing) is much more detailed (see below). This store-bought piggie even has a golden plastic stand that looks like the lower half of a pig.
We were tickled at our piggie (I wish it were a pork bun, I don't particularly like mooncakes), but like I mentioned above, there are much better looking ones.
Animal-shaped mooncakes, it seems, are popular in Vietnam (they've made bunny-shaped mooncakes, etc.) According to this video clip from Youtube user Vietnam Daily Life, the country's tradition of making pig mooncakes became popular in the late 80s in Hanoi. Watch how they're made:
7 layer bean dip is great, but it's certainly not the healthiest option and it can get really messy. If you're looking to change up your tailgate with something a little different that's still just as delicious, consider trying this great 7 layer Greek dip by Closet Cooking. This tasty snack features hummus, tatziki, cucumbers, tomato, feta, mint, red onions and kalmata olives. Switch your usual tortilla chips up for some pita chips and you have a tasty Mediteranean treat that's way lower in calories.
Of course, it still isn't going to make your breath smell any better, so you should still bring some mints along.
To my great fortune, I was raised by parents from the Deep South and spent a considerable portion of my youth there. I don't mention it too often here out of compassion for readers who were not so blessed. I grew up eating well.
Among the culinary delights of the Deep South are pigs' feet. Rarely have I had the opportunity to butcher pigs myself and fresh store-bought pigs' feet are rare, so I've always eaten them pickled.
Pickled pigs' feet are delicious! You really should try them, though I have never convinced my dear wife (who identifies as a South Texan but not a Southerner) to do so.
You can eat pickled pigs' feet straight out of a jar with a knife and fork. That is my preferred method. But there are recipes around the web that add diced pickled pigs' feet meat to tostadas. The above photo uploaded onto Yelp shows a plate of them at the restaurant chain Xoco.
YouTube user shopdogsam describes himself as a "poor hippie country boy" from "the east coast of Arkansas." He sliced up the meat on pickled pigs feet, then deep fried them in pancake batter and corn meal. He shares this bit of wisdom:
I tell you what, some people says that they don't like pigs feet--wouldn't eat one on a bet--but yet they go on down there and get 'em a hot dog. If you'd eat a hot dog, you'll eat anything.
It is not only in the Deep South where people enjoy the succulent flavors of pigs' feet. In parts of the UK, it's traditional to bake them into a pie. Here's a recipe for pigs' feet pie from Essex, which I see is in the south of England (Southerners are everywhere).
What happens when someone goes on Twitter to express disappointment over discovering his Velveeta cup came waaaayyyyyy too empty? If that person is Chris Torres, the creator of Nyan Cat, and Velveeta just happens to get wind of the Tweet, then pure magic can happen in the form of cheesy goodness.
That is, they sent him a package to make up for their blunder that included not only five blocks of original Velveeta, but also a one-of-a-kind tee showing a modified Nyan Cat with bread and drippy cheese replacing Nyan's classic Pop Tart and rainbow.
Aside from showing that they have great customer service, Velveeta really impressed everyone simply by showing off their appreciation for great memes and that's what really matters in a processed cheese food company.
A Japanese manufacturer is selling a kit from which you can make a gelatin/pudding dessert that looks like a shaking butt. For real.
The dessert is a tribute to the character of Shin Nohara on the Japanese manga series Crayon Shin-chan. The five-year-old Shin apparently shows his butt occasionally. I could not find any source to explain why a five-year-old would wear a red thong, so the tie-in with the character may be window dressing to make the product look respectable.
In 2008, it was possible to acquire in Japan real, licensed Cheetos that had been dipped in a strawberry flavored coating. And what was that coating made of? Let’s not ask questions that we don’t want answers to.
I can readily imagine eating them with a bowl of strawberry ice cream. Jeremy Hall, who took the two photos above, renders this verdict: “I feared for the worst, and thus wasn't disappointed when these turned out to be awful.” That’s a commendable attitude to take for both eating and dating.
